Appendix S1: The Great Winter Hunt '09

On December 2, 2009, a banner appeared announcing that a strange comet is on a collision course with Gnawnia.

On December 3 the comet collided. This announces the start of the Christmas event.

A new shoppe has also appeared in the Shops tab - the Festive Gift Shoppe. This can be accessed by all hunters from all locations.

The Gift Shoppe allows you to buy assorted items - the catch is that you can't buy them for yourself, but must send it to someone on your friends list. Try asking your MouseHunt-playing friends about exchanging gifts; failing that, there is a new "Gift Exchange" section in the MouseHunt forums that you can use.

Most of the gifts appear merely to be fun collectibles. There is one that cannot be gifted directly; the Santa Bear, which can only be found as one of the possible items in a Slightly Smaller Gift.

Those gifts have an... *ahem* interesting property. Highlight below to find out what it is.

The Slightly Smaller Gifts have a high chance of yielding "1 Slightly Smaller Gift" when opened. Haha, real funny practical joke. <.< You just have to keep opening it until it yields an item.

The Santa Bear, like the Teddy Bear, can be "hugged" from the inventory. Awr. :3

The Plank of Gingerbread, when smashed with the Hunter's Hammer, produces 15 pieces of Gingerbread Cheese. Note that you cannot reconstruct the plank from the cheese!

This cheese is needed to successfully hunt for the Christmas-themed mice in the new location, the Festive Comet. You may also use SUPER|brie+ there - notably, the Christmas Tree mouse is a lot more attracted to SUPER|brie+ than Gingerbread Cheese.

The special event mice can be attracted using regular Brie, but at a much lower frequency. In particular, the Scrooge and Christmas Tree mice are not attracted to regular cheese at all.

On December 8, Worker mice have been spotted dropping the Gingerbread House Plans.

This can be used to construct a weapon, the Gingerbread House Surprise, using this recipe:

1 Gingerbread House Plans

10 Candies

5 Icing Sugar

7 Planks of Gingerbread

Note that you must be at least a Grandmaster to craft this safely.

The Gingerbread House Surprise is a Tactical trap. It is slightly weaker than the Mutated Venus Mouse Trap, but has a higher attraction bonus and an "Über Fresh" cheese effect.

Ornament mice have also been spotted dropping the Gingerbread Base Blueprints.

This can be used to construct a base, the Gingerbread Base, using this recipe:

1 Gingerbread Base Blueprints

5 Candies

1 Icing Sugar

1 Plank of Gingerbread

Note that you must be at least a Grandmaster to craft this safely.

The Gingerbread Base can be thought of as an alternative to the Dehydration Base, with an 8% power bonus instead of the 5% attraction bonus.

On December 12, the "Twelve Days 'til Christmas" event is announced. Each day a new loot item is released; their use will be revealed at the end of the event.

Date

Mice

Loot

December 12

Candy Cane, White

One Droid Action Figure

December 13

Present, Dwarf

Two Festive Mitts

December 14

Christmas Tree, Abominable Snow

Three Santa Hats

December 15

Stocking, Troll

Four Festive Stockings

December 16

Ornament, Treant

Five Ornaments

December 17

Nutcracker, Abominable Snow

Six Snowballs

December 18

Present, Bear

Seven Gingerbread Mice

December 19

Elf*, Dwarf

Eight Pointy Elf Shoes

December 20

Present, Centaur

Nine Reindeer Antlers

December 21

Candy Cane, Hydra

Ten Candy Canes

December 22

Christmas Tree, Frozen

Eleven Coloured Lights

December 23

Christmas Tree, Scrooge, Toy, Gargoyle

Twelve Liters of Egg Nog

* Elf mice did not appear on the comet until this day.

Frozen, Toy, and Frosty Snow mice appeared on the 22nd.

If you have collected all the twelve items, you are able to exchange them with Larry for the Christmas Cracker Trap. This is a powerful and lucky Physical trap, comparable to the PartyBot, and an adequate substitute for the Rhinobot. The Twelve Liters of Egg Nog is required, but will be left in your inventory.

If you have not, or if you do not want the Christmas Cracker Trap, you may still exchange the loot with Larry for 10 SUPER|brie+ each, except for the Twelve Liters of Egg Nog.

It seems that there may be a future use to the Twelve Liters of Egg Nog.

On December 24, 2009, Ronza's Travelling Shoppe appears, selling some new traps!

When she first arrived only two of the trap components are available for purchase; the Snowglobe Trap and the Candy Cane Base.

The Snowglobe Trap (341,000 gold, 91,000 points required) is a Physical trap, nearly identical to the NVMRC Forcefield Trap, but with an additional 4 luck. It's probably not that useful, as it's significantly more expensive, and if you can afford it, you'd likely already have better traps.

The Candy Cane Base (90,000 gold, 110,200 points required) is like a stronger version of the Aqua Base. A good buy, as it's cheaper and has a lower point requirement.

On December 28, 2009, the Chrome Drillbot is available for purchase from Ronza.

If you can afford it, the Chrome Drillbot (897,400 gold, 544,000 points required) is a very good buy, as it outperforms all current Physical traps, even the Rhinobot.

On December 30, 2009, the 2010 Blastoff Trap and Firecracker Base are available for purchase from Ronza. Also, New Year's mice have been spotted in her shoppe.

The 2010 Blastoff Trap (512,800 gold, 99,000 points) is a rather useful tactical trap; it is comparable to the Horrific Venus Mouse Trap.

The Firecracker Base (90,000 gold, 92,200 points) is nearly identical to the Explosive Base, but with an additional 4 luck. This base is useful to have around, if you don't already have the Magma Base.

On January 2, 2009, the Festive Comet melted. Two of the new mice, the Frozen and the Frosty Snow, took up permanent residence in the Mountain.